Good Start Meets Bad Weather, Derby Delight Sidelined by Jose

But during the second week, the name most often escaping the lips of derby fishermen was not a trusted lure maker or a fishing buddy, but a hurricane named Jose which deteriorated to a tropical storm as it brushed past Martha’s Vineyard.

“This is not a good development,” said derby president Ed Jerome, as he shared coffee with some other anglers at derby headquarters Wednesday morning. “Every year we usually have a stretch of bad weather. Sometimes it has an impact, sometimes not. This one will probably eat up the end of this week.”

Casting into white water at Oak Bluffs seawall.
— Jeanna Shepard

The annual tournament, situated in the middle of the prime hurricane season, has had several brushes with powerful storms.

Mr. Jerome cited 1954 when Hurricane Carol broadsided the Island, followed two weeks later by Hurricane Edna.

“We had two hurricanes in one Derby season, and it almost ended the Derby,” said Mr. Jerome.

He said the storms were so bad they threatened not only that year’s event, but future tournaments.

Hurricane Carol was a category 3 hurricane which battered southern New England with little advanced warning. It was considered one of the most damaging and deadly storms of the century. At least 68 people died across New England.

Hurricane Edna, a category 2 storm, made a direct hit on Martha’s Vineyard, with very severe losses. A wind gust of 125 miles per hour was recorded in Chilmark.

Despite tropical storm Jose, determined derby fishermen were still weighing fish through the middle of the week, even at the height of the storm when northerly winds were steady at 25 miles per hour, with gusts topping 40 miles per hour.

The derby grand leader board is getting harder and harder to crack as the tournament progresses.